


im so helplessly sugar high (on you)

by starryprose



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, author did too much on how these american candies are in asia, black licorice, just like barely there zukka, mailee, strawberry mentos, these girls gay good for them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:28:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29303496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryprose/pseuds/starryprose
Summary: Mai reveals how she's a fan of an unpopular candy and then Ty Lee suddenly always has said candy. Despite not liking it herself, Ty Lee always offers Mai some and eats it too. Mai can't quite figure out why.
Relationships: Azula & Mai & Ty Lee, Mai & Zuko (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), mentioned Sokka/Zuko
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40





	im so helplessly sugar high (on you)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Long time no see! I've been working on this for quite awhile actually, honestly I've just had so much going on and I've been a bit creatively drained. Mailee deserves better than this but for now this is all I have to offer for them. I have a draft I'm working on for Yueki and some Korrasami too. I might visit Rangshi too. No worries this tired bisexual will bring you all the content at some point. 
> 
> I did way too much intense research on the candies in here. This is strongly inspired by the song "Strawberry Mentos" By Leanna Firestone because the bridge is amazing and it makes me feel soft and gooey. So, in an attempt to be accurate to the asain base that ATLA has but not stray too far from the inspiration, I did some crazy intense research on the type of candies. For the purposes of this fic, the Fire Nation is mainly Japanese with some Chinese influences while the Earth Kingdom is strongly Chinese with some Vietnamese influences in areas like the swamp. It probably isn't totally accurate but I definitely tried. Please kindly let me know if I need to correct anything and I will ASAP!
> 
> Enjoy guys! Comments and kudos always appreciated

It starts at a sleepover. Mai thinks they’ve grown past these types of events but she also knows that when they were younger, and Azula was Ozai’s puppet, and not just herself, they didn’t get to really enjoy these things. So, Mai shuts her mouth and wears silky pajamas and lets Ty Lee braid her hair and Azula paint her nails. 

It feels childish to an extent, to clutch a pillow and talk about things. But Mai thinks that perhaps that is what they need, to be childish. Just because none of them got to be real average children, to begin with. 

Azula is emptying a pack of fire poppers easily, tipping her head back, the crystallized candies falling into her mouth. Mai is sitting close enough she can almost hear the sizzle of the popping in the other girl’s mouth from where she’s sitting.

“These are my favorite candies,” Azula announces simply as she discards the empty package. She smiles a little bit at the announcement, like she’s allowed to let Mai and Ty Lee in on these details now. 

“I love these,” Ty Lee exclaims as she unwraps a pink square, it’s a chewy candy that Mai can’t recall the actual name of. “The strawberry ones are my absolute favorite.”

“It’s fitting to you,” Azula replies and she nods towards Ty Lee as an acknowledgment. She turns her intense gold eyes onto Mai then though. “What about you, Mai?” 

Mai states emptily at Azula and then towards Ty Lee whose grey eyes are wide and curious. Mai thinks if it was just Azula wanting the answer, she wouldn’t say it, but it’s obvious Ty Lee is curious too. And Mai has never been quite good at not doing what Ty Lee wants, at not offering up some part of herself that’s vulnerable. 

“Dark licorice vines,” Mai tells them and she tries to do it confidently. Zuko didn’t have much taste in anything but even he had teased her for liking that particular candy. In the Fire Nation, the licorice root had a distinct taste that was comparable to the oil they used in the candies. The root itself was instead used for medicine. 

Mai had hated taking medicine as a child, but then her parents solved it by giving her the licorice as a reward sometimes and informing her that it was candy. Mai knew at that point that candy was a sweet treat and that a reward was good, so she began to associate the taste, which was comparable to medicine, with candy instead and it made her a much more agreeable child when she was sick. 

So, sue her. She liked licorice. It reminded her of a childhood that was not entirely good but definitely not as bad as other people’s had been. It was a nostalgia she couldn’t quite shake. Medicine was given to her when she was sick and provided undivided attention and a candy reward. 

“You like those?” Azula scoffed and her lips puckered in disgust. Her brows were furrowed in confusion though and it seemed like she genuinely was trying to wrap her head around the idea of Mai enjoying something that was not satisfying to Azula, or many people, whatsoever. Even Ty Lee seemed a little shocked.

“Yep,” Mai declared, not willing to unpack her history and experience with the candy. Ty Lee shook her head.

“Props to your taste buds I guess,” Ty Lee said, and then she changed the subject to asking Azula to help her decide a shade of pink to paint her toes. Mai didn’t react but internally she was happy to avoid teasing. 

********

It’s not until a few weeks later it comes up again. They’re in the palace once again because at this point they basically live there. Azula and Zuko are busy with royal duties, so it ends in the way it used to when they were little and things like this happened, with Mai and Ty Lee together. 

Mai’s reading something on crimes in the Fire Nation and Ty Lee is using a thin brush and ink to sketch out face paint designs on a sheet of parchment while she looks over at a book. Mai knows it likely has something to do with Kyoshi, ever since Ty Lee had joined the warriors she had become very invested in the past Avatar’s history and Mai couldn’t entirely blame her. 

Both of them were actually historical nerds. Especially when the historical figure wasn't entirely straight. It always added something relatable to them. 

“Oh!” Ty Lee exclaims suddenly and Mai luckily doesn’t startle at the outburst. Instead, she lifts her bronze eyes to stare at the other girl. Ty Lee is sitting up now and reaching into the pockets of her pants. She succeeds with her search and pulls out something that’s wrapped in parchment with Fire Nation characters from different stories. “I nearly forgot about this!”

Then Ty Lee is unwrapping the item and shoving it towards Mai with an excited smile. There in the waxy parchment lying in Ty Lee’s hands is the braided candy from the licorice root that Mai had confessed to liking not too long ago. 

Mai knows it’s not Ty Lee’s taste at all. That, quite frankly, the other girl likely hated the candy but it’s clear that Ty Lee had noted Mai’s preference for it. Not to tease her or anything, but to have some for Mai. 

The same sort of lurch in her heart that happened back at the Boiling Rock so many months ago occurs again. This proof that Ty Lee did care for Mai, loved her even. And Mai knows she can’t assume that it’s as anything more than friends but there’s a part of her that hopes, wishes, it was.

“I don’t know how picky you are about it or anything. But there are only so many places that use the licorice root as candy rather than medicine. So, I hope I got one that you like. It is Fire Nation based and not Earth Kingdom or anything so-” Ty Lee is rambling and Mai realizes that she’s yet to take the candy from her friend. She reaches forward quickly and takes one of the pieces.

“Thank you, really,” Mai tells her, cutting her friend off. It’s a bit sharp, the way Mai always unfortunately is but Ty Lee seems to relax and she smiles widely. Her gray eyes scrunch closed and her teeth are revealed. Ty Lee has always made Mai feel better about being sharp in some places. 

“You’re welcome!” She chirps and then she takes a piece of the licorice for herself and slides the rest to Mai. Mai blinks comically as Ty Lee takes a bite into the candy. Ty Lee hides her dislike of the flavor rather well but it’s still easy to tell that she’s not truly a fan.

So, why would she eat it? 

Mai decides not to interrogate her friend. It wouldn’t be the right thing to do when Ty Lee has spent her own money and time finding the candy that she didn’t even like. But it was for Mai, and Ty Lee did things for the people she cared about. Mai was trying to be better about doing things like that.

She chews on the candy and steals glances at Ty Lee. If Ty Lee notices, she doesn’t comment. 

********

It happens again. And again. And again.

It becomes odd to not find Ty Lee with dark licorice vines on her person. Mai can’t figure out why. She thinks once that perhaps Ty Lee had just developed a taste for them but then when she takes one that Ty Lee offers, Ty Lee always eats one too, and she’s still not getting better at hiding her distaste of the flavor.

Ty Lee doesn’t seem to offer them to other people and it makes sense if they really are for Mai. Dark licorice vines aren’t a popular item either, they’re hard to find at most stalls in the Fire Nation markets. 

Maybe she’d gotten a large pack and has been just slowly wheedling away at, handing braided pieces of the candy to Mai when she sees her, but the candies don’t usually come in packs. And they always taste fresh. If Mai wasn’t an actual fan of the candy she wouldn’t be able to tell if they were fresh or not, but she is so she knows. 

It seems as though Ty Lee is going out nearly weekly and tracking down the most elite brands of the unpopular sweet just for Mai. And it’s not that Mai isn’t thankful, she is, but she can’t quite understand  _ why.  _ Why would Ty Lee do this? She’s not getting candies for Azula as far as Mai knows.

Mai doesn’t know if she could handle it if Lee was getting candies for Azula. 

Mai takes the candy, doesn’t ask questions, and watches Ty Lee’s eyebrows knit together and her lips pucker as the other girl eats a piece alongside Mai. 

She just can’t figure it out.

*******

After nearly a month of the occurrences happening, Mai tracks Zuko down. He’s in a study in the palace, his shorter messy hair tugged into a crooked top knot and he’s bent over a piece of parchment. 

“What are you doing?” Mai questions him and Zuko squeaks in an undignified way that is rather unbecoming of an heir to a throne. But Zuko will never be just the heir to the throne to Mai so she doesn’t comment on it 

“What are you doing?” He replies and tries to look menacing but Zuko has never succeeded at that. When they had dated, Mai had always been the scarier of the two and Zuko knows it. He’s powerful, physically, and when it comes to his position, and when he’d been full of rage he likely was rather startling but Zuko has always been soft deep down. It wasn’t something his family could beat out of him, Mai had been born sharp and her family and she had just sharpened her as she grew.

“I asked you first,” She says as she drops into a kneel across from him at the desk. Zuko’s scowl deepens.

“Writing Sokka back.” He revealed. “What can I help you with Mai?” 

“Do I have to need something to see you?” She asks.

“Well, no. But you looked determined which isn’t a usual emotion for you,” He moves his pot of ink aside and cleans his brush. It’s evident that he’s preparing to listen to her and Mai feels almost touched at the small signs of Zuko’s clear devotion for her. They may not be romantically involved in the way so many had wanted them to be but their connection runs deep. 

“Ty Lee keeps buying me that candy I like. I won’t even say which one because you know what it is and you know it’s not popular. And she has told me before she doesn’t like it but she always offers me a piece, and she has been for weeks! And it’s always fresh too!” Mai exclaims. “And then I take the piece and Ty Lee eats a piece too. Even though, like I said, she’s told me she doesn’t quite like it. And even though she is rather awful at hiding her evident dislike of it when she eats it.”

She finishes and her chest heaves a bit at the amount of emotion and exhilaration she put into her brief monologue. Zuko stares at Mai rather blankly for a moment before he sighs. His hand flies up to his head and he rests his temple against his palm. 

“Mai, I am no good at relationship advice,” He declares.

“Relationship? But Ty Lee and I aren’t in a relationship. It’s merely a friendship,”

“You and I both know you are not dumb enough to believe that after all this, a friendship might be all that Ty Lee wants from you,” Zuko says. He sighs again and Mai’s insides freeze. 

“What?” She asks and Zuko bites his lip.

“I just, Ty Lee is going out of her way to be kind to you? She’s buying and eating your favorite candy, which she hates, simply because it is your favorite. It’s a Ty Lee thing to do but she wouldn’t do it for me and I’m her friend too. She wouldn’t do it for Suki or Sokka or Aang. They’re all her friends. Maybe at one point, she would’ve done it for Azula but that doesn’t matter because right now, she’s doing it for you,” Zuko explains. 

Mai’s heart is beating hard in her chest. She doesn’t quite understand what all this means. What is she meant to do? Because what if Zuko isn’t right and Mai assumes he is and she makes a fool of herself and loses Ty Lee? 

She tells her thoughts to Zuko and he softens a bit. Mai always likes this Zuko, ruffled and exposed, he’s handsome and Mai thinks that it wouldn’t have been terrible to have stuck by his side. If things didn’t turn out the way either of them wanted, then maybe they’d fall back into one another, marry and rule together. The passionate yet angsty Fire Lord and his stoic and sharp Fire Lady. It wasn’t a picture she hated, they wouldn’t be loveless, just not loving to each other in the way people wanted or expected. 

“You have to take the risk, Mai. But I don’t think it’ll be one that causes you to fall. If it does though, I’ll get Aang to whisk you away myself.” He promises and Mai almost smiles. “Just, I don’t know buy her favorite candy, maybe eat it too.” 

“You may have some good ideas sometimes,” She informs him and Zuko almost laughs. It’s his rough chuckle that he allows himself every few weeks. 

Mai loves him, just enough. She kisses his cheek before she leaves and Zuko rolls his eyes fondly and bids her farewell. Mai goes to the market. 

********

It’s not hard to find the candies Ty Lee likes. Their package reads メントス, mentos. They’re a popular confectionery mint that were usually found in the earth kingdom and that had expanded many eras ago. Mai had never particularly liked them, the odd mixture of the hard shell on the outside and the chewy middle with filling had always thrown her. Mai had always preferred the dragon beard candy that originated in the Fire Nation or the White Rabbit Candy from the Earth Kingdom over mentos.

But Mai’s preferences weren’t meant to be important. So, Mai remembers Ty Lee’s favorite flavor and buys the candy. 

It doesn’t take long to find Ty Lee. Their visit to the palace is ending soon, Ty Lee will go back to Kyoshi Island to keep training with the Kyoshi Warriors. Mai will stick around and try to stay entertained. She’d find something worthwhile, she always did. But for now, she was running out of time. 

Ty Lee is once again in the library, ever since Iroh had taken over with Zuko, sharing the throne so Zuko could practice as the future heir, they’d refilled the library with other histories of the Avatar’s eras that the Fire Nation had tried to erase.

Ty Lee looks over from where she’d been searching book spines when Mai arrived and she smiles very widely. Mai’s heart skips. She drops her hand the books she’d been scanning and reaches into her pocket. 

“Want a dark licorice vine?” Ty Lee asks and it’s a normal question now, so, Mai accepts the candy and Ty Lee smiles her normal smile, pops one into her mouth, and fakes enjoyment as she chews.

Mai doesn't eat hers just yet. Instead, she opens the wrapping on the strawberry candies she knows are Ty Lee’s favorite. She slides one out and eats it instead, ignoring how strawberry is one of her least favorite flavors in the world and focusing on the true grin that is now climbing back onto Ty Lee’s lips as Mai holds the candy out to her.

“For you,” Mai says rather abruptly. It’s not her fault she’s rather emotionally stunted. Ty Lee’s smile is brilliant though, toothy and her cheeks are tinged pink like the candy. Mai’s are too, she knows it. 

Ty Lee’s hand wraps around the candy and then she uses her other hand to deposit them into her pocket. The hand that she’d originally use stays in Mai’s and she slides their fingers together. Then Ty Lee tugs just a little bit and extends up onto her tiptoes.

Mai is struck suddenly at how short Ty Lee is. Mai has gotten taller recently, hitting her last growth spurt, and she has a good few inches on Ty Lee. But Ty Lee makes up for her lack of height in her enthusiasm. 

“I’m going to kiss you now,” Ty Lee announces confidently and her lips are on Mai’s. Ty Lee’s lips are exceptionally soft and Mai shouldn’t be shocked by that because everything about Ty Lee is soft in a good way. 

And Mai notices that Ty Lee tastes like dark licorice vines. Because they’re Mai’s favorites. And hopefully, Mai tastes like those awful strawberry candies that Ty Lee loves. 

Ty Lee had been eating the licorice vines the whole time so that on the chance that Mai kissed her, she’d taste like them. It was such a peculiar thing but so fitting. Mai couldn’t even wrap her head around it. 

Love wasn’t usually like this. Love was sacrifice, like the Boiling Rock but maybe eating a candy you don’t really like was a sacrifice. It was just so kind, so soft, such a Ty Lee thing to do, and even Mai had done it now. But then again, she did love Ty Lee, didn’t she? 

The kiss was over too fast but the smile that Ty Lee gave her told Mai that from now on, they could kiss whenever they felt like it. 

“I am so very glad that you finally caught on,” Ty Lee told her as she fell back to her feet. Her arm which had found its way around Mai’s shoulders during the kiss stays there, warm and possessive. Mai is Ty Lee’s now, whether Ty Lee fully knows it yet or not.

“Sorry it took me so long,” Mai replies sheepishly. “It was actually Zuko who had to help me a bit.”

“To be fair, we don’t have many friends who aren’t rather emotionally stunted. But it doesn’t matter, you figured it out,” Ty Lee assures her and she leans in again for another kiss. Mai is dizzy with it, this love is sweeter than any candy, more rewarding. 

So, they fade into the bliss of strawberry candies and dark licorice vines and kisses shared by two girls. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos appreciated <3


End file.
